hangin' with baba (granpa)

at ramrod... our local creek

(currently a raging torrent after all the fabulous rain)

its all about the ablutions...

did somebody say 'CHEEEEEEEEESE'?

SPRUNG!!! toilet training is going well.

RR likes to sit down with a good read - just like her mummy.

"with rings on her fingers and bells on her toes, she shall have music wherever she goes"

a pre-bath rock on our latest toy library treat... pretty specky huh?

a perfect spring day at the river

(ermm... what's daddy got in his hands?)

don't worry... if there'd been any fish he would have let them go

(or so he says!!!)

nana's in town

Walkie Talkie

outside grandpa's in melbourne with 'dolly-doe'

kissykissy

In latest breaking news - Rakaia Rose is talking!

Here are some of her favorite words:

Daddy
Mummy
Nana
(Ba)nana
Boobie (still a firm favorite around here!)
More (very impt)
No (equally impt) Taaaaah (thanks)
Dolly (see pic above with kate's childhood favorite)
Ball (developing a good throwing arm ...and looking like being a left hander after mummy!)
Boo(k) (LOVES reading)
Ha(t) (always accompanied by brisk taps of the head)
Shoe (loves putting them on AND taking them off)
Various attempts at animal noises...whooo whooo and woof woof
Fishfishfishfishfish

our very own fishy: bath time is still a daily highlight!

WE HAVE LIFT-OFF!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's right folks: Rakaia Rose is officially a 'toddler'...

she's been toddling at least a dozen steps in any direction for a couple of weeks now and getting more and more confident by the day.

Pictured here at ACCA in melbourne last weekend, sampling a bit of installation art.

tourists

We took the Staten island ferry and checked out Ye Olde Statue of Liberty.... 

Paul and Joel couldn't resist the cheap on board beers...  

the pitts

We've spent our fourth of July weekend in Pittsburgh (home of Flashdance and Andy Warhol) with Joel's uncle David, aunt Alex and cousin Jacob. Pictured below on the steps of a neighbour's house at a genuine all-american block party. I even ate a hot dog!!!  (its not really meat anyway, is it?)

Jacob and Joel share a birthday (12th august if you want to start preparing!)....

 so they had an early celebration today with a fab gluten free cake. Check that baby out!! 

RR has loved getting to know her first cousin once removed.  too cute!!! 

Jacob gave RR some great hand-me-downs including a wicked pair of sunnies. 

from bruthen to the big apple via a little place called... tahiti

 Our 2 day stopover in tahiti was a great success. We laid low at our lovely little beachside shack - swimming, eating baguettes and drinking fresh coconut milk and generally resting up in readiness for our big flight to the states (which went just fine by the way!)

Et 'oui' I practiced my rusty french on some unsuspecting tahitians. 

Rakaia had her first birthday on 16.06 - and since we crossed the dateline she actually had 2 birth-days... one in auckland and one in tahiti. Lucky lucky girl!

The US of A

Joel's Great Aunt Ada and Uncle Seymour... We stayed with them at their retirement village in New Jersey for two days. "You wanna klondyke bar??" is my new favorite quote. What an experience to be looked after by a real jewish american granma from the joisey shore....

With Joel's Fabulous and Formidable Great Aunt Sylvia... 

Spending the afternoon at Coney Island with my oldest friend Paul (pickle dog) Williams and his partner Suzanne for the Annual Mermaid Parade... where a bunch of alternative/semi-subversive types (ie people we'd most prob be friends with) dress up as mermaids or sea-dwelling creatures of some description. Kooky and cool!!!

.....(more to come)

Field Mouse

photographic evidence!!

And here they are ladies and gentleman... FINALLY caught on film... !

time flies when your baby is having fun!

RR in disguise. what baby??

Well, I think this must surely be the longest we've gone without a blog update and I apologise to our millions of loyal fans (or at least Herbert, Lavinia and Linda) for keeping you in the cyberspatial dark. So what's news?

*RR has popped her first 2 teeth.... centre bottom. Haven't completely risen yet but definitely functional. They've taken a long time and cost lots of tears and difficult nights. They're also still to be captured on film -so watch this space-

* We've taken our first trip on the plane together to Jess and Harry's wedding in Newcastle. All went well but we did wonder how much fun a longer trip might be (ie 90 min was quite enough time to keep RR seated and entertained!!)

Dad and Daughter in their wedding splendour

RR inspecting Jess' bouquet

The wedding was at Catherine Bay (Catho to locals) just south of Newie. We stayed with Jess and Harry and some other mates at the great reception venue: the old local RSL that's been converted into a private house... which was a mixed blessing.... We got to party until our bedtime - and then we got to listen to everyone else party for a few more hours!!! (correction: joel had earplugs and RR slept like a baby - it was just kate lying awake and listening to the techno!)

on the catho beach at dusk

movin' on up...

LOOK OUT: Rakaia Rose is now officially mobile. She had been threatening to crawl for some time and then about 3 weeks ago it happened.
Sorry for the old news - but it's been a little harder to get on the computer ever since!!!
Mobility means curiosity... (wow look at those interesting piles of cds/electrical cords etc)
It means more accidents and tears...
It seems to mean more time spent awake in the daytime.
>> And all of this adds up to less lounging around for Mummy and Daddy.

Oh and did I mention that just plain crawling got pretty boring pretty quickly so RR added pulling herself up to standing to her repertoire. This is basically her fave pastime now and she'll try it on anything that will support her....

Visit from Nana

Rakaia loved having her Nana Lavinia over from NZ to stay with us in early January...

They shared lots of fun and games together

(especially of the early morning variety so Mum could get some more sleep!!)

Nana was a great help in getting us started on Rakaia's 'solid' diet...

("open wiiiiide")

We went for a sunday drive up the Great Alpine Road to Omeo - and had an average pub lunch at the original fabulously Art Deco "Golden Age Hotel"

Kate and Rakaia drove Nana back to Melbourne and the 3 girls spent a few days shopping and hanging out in the big smoke before Nana went home on the plane. Pictured here in front of 'Lavinia House' on Nicholson Street, North Carlton.